The Kite Runner
Directed by Marc Forster
Produced by William Horberg, Walter Parkes, Rebecca Yeldham, E.Bennett Walsh, Laurie Macdonald
Written by Khaled Hosseini (novel)
David Benioff (screenplay)
Music by Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography Roberto Schaefer
Editing by Matt Chesse
Running time 128 min.
Country USA
Language Persian / English
Cast
Khalid Abdalla - Amir as adult
Zekeria Ebrahimi - Amir as a child
Ali Dinesh - Sohrab
Homayoun Ershadi - Baba
Atossa Leoni - Soraya
Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada - Hassan as a child
Nasser Memarzia - Zaman
Shaun Toub - Rahim Khan
Saïd Taghmaoui - Farid, the driver/guide
Henri Ramsey - family member (graduation)
Qadir Farookh - General Taheri
Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada - Omar (best competing kite flyer)
(The three boys were aged 11 and 12 at the time of the filming)
'The Kite Runner,' is a film directed by Marc Forster, based on a novel with the same title written by Khaled Hosseini, an American novelist and physician of Afghan origin. A 2007 film, 'The Kite Runner,' was nominated for the Academy Awards.
A bilingual film in English and Dari Persian (the official name of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan) with English subtitles, 'The Kite Runner,' tells the story of Amir, a boy from a well-to-do Kabul family and the sense of guilt that haunts him throughout his life for having betrayed Hassan, his childhood friend and the son of his father's servant. The story is set amidst the most turbulent events in Afghanistan's recent past, beginning with the fall of the monarchy following the Soviet invation in the Seventies, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the USA and the rise of the Taliban.
Amir and Hassan are inseparable boyhood friends, notwithstanding the social difference between them. However, as the country falls into political turmoil, Amir leaves the country with his father, leaving Hassan and his family behind. Shortly before that, Amir and Hassan had landed in trouble following a confrontation with Assef, a local bully. Hassan had fallen a victim of sexual molestation by Assef while trying to retain a kite he had retrieved for Amir. (Kite fighting was a popular pastime of Afghan children, in which opponents try to cut the strings of each other's kites which will be coated with a mixture of crushed glass and glue and Hassan was the 'kite runner' for Amir who brought back the fallen kites).
However, on that fateful day, Amir did nothing (or could not do) anything to save the honour of his best friend and this guilt followed him to his life in the USA. Finally, years later, he returns to an Afghanistan now under the Taliban, to save Soharab, the son of his once-best friend, Hassan, who is already dead.
Though most of the film is set in Afghanistan, the film was mostly shot in China, due to the political turmoil of Afghanistan.
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